MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th March, 2023) Russian and Belorussian athletes will participate in the 2032 Olympics, which will be held in the city of Brisbane, Australia, regardless of the opposition of the Australian government, Matt Carroll, the chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), said on Monday.
"It's not the athletes who started the war, who are causing the grief and the tragedy," Carroll was quoted as saying by Australian newspaper The Canberra Times.
The Australian government will regret implementing the ban, he added, recalling the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
"The prime minister of Australia many years later said it was the wrong decision by the country," Carroll said.
Although the AOC condemns Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, it sees allowing Russian and Belorussian athletes to compete as an opportunity to "to bring the world together," he noted.
In February 2022, the International Olympic Committee recommended international sports federations ban Russian and Belorussian athletes from competing. On January 25, the Executive board of the IOC allowed the athletes from the two countries to take part in competitions under neutral status.
